RailCats Lose 5-0

23-38

6th in the East 

1. This was a rare weather day for the SteelYard in the middle of July. At 1st pitch it was sunny and 73 degrees. I definitely should have brought my sweatshirt but failed to since it was warm all day. The chilly temperature wasn’t the rarity to me; it was the wind blowing in from left field. Normally, we get some kind of wind blowing out. Any ball that was hit solid and on a normal day would have been gone was just a simple fly out. This game came down to who could hit line drives and not make mistakes

2. Nothing is better than starting your vacation at the ballpark on a beautiful sunny day, where the stadium felt and sounded full, especially for a Wednesday.

3. Speaking of Wednesday, with it being Pierogi Wednesday, I was told that the Pierogi stand sold close to, if not over 1,200 Pierogies in about 2 and a half hours. They are some good Pierogies! Especially when they are a Dollar!

4. Carlos Sánabria had an interesting night for himself. He started the game with a walk, a single, and a hit by pitch, something he hadn’t done in the last 2 starts. However, with the bases loaded and no outs, Carlos struck out Ryan Hernandez and induced a 5-4-3 double play to get out of the inning.

5. With that wind coming in from the left knocking everything down, we had a pitching duel on our hands. I knew it was going to be a long night for the RailCats’ bats with Jon Duplantier on the mound. He was a highly ranked prospect in the Diamondbacks system, playing in the 2017 All-Star Futures Game, and being named MLB Pipeline Pitcher of the Year. Jon was throwing heat to start this game. Every time I looked at the radar board, he was throwing between 95-97 MPH, and you could tell he was bringing the heat. He only went 4 innings; it was scheduled like that.

6. In the top of the 4th is when everything fell apart for Sanabria, which led him to get ejected. It started with him giving up a double to Hernandez, forcing Terry to fly out to left, giving up a single to Zuberer which scored Hernandez, getting Jones to strike out, then walking Grullon. Now this is where it all came unglued. Sanabria was on the rubber and dropped the ball out of his mitt. Now for most baseball fans, we knew that it was a balk which led to the runners being able to advance one base (besides the batter). (A balk in baseball occurs when a pitcher makes an illegal motion on the mound that an umpire deems to be deceitful to runners on base). It seemed Sanabria forgot that and when he gave up a 3-run triple to Tiberi, Sanabria immediately turned to Tom Swoboda, the 3rd base umpire who called the balk, and was basically yelling at him mid-play. Tom said “nope, you’re done” and tossed him. The RailCats would give up 4 in that inning.

7. My take on Sanabria in that moment makes me think of two things. The first is that he was unaware of where he was on the mound and simply dropped the ball by mistake. My second thought is that he truly didn’t think you could possibly get called for a balk for that, in which case how do you get to the level you are and not know that. It was the right call on the field, and losing your mind in that moment was not the time or place. (I also hate players that get themselves ejected midway through a play. Finish the play first, then complain.)

8. This team is going through another cold spell of not being able to hit or score runs. This is a huge series that they are just letting slip by. They only had 3 hits on the night and struck out 10 times. Granted the opponents struck out 12, but again it was the one bad inning that ended up in the loss.

9. Jackson Vakera was hit by a pitch in the 6th. I believe it hit him in the left forearm. But Chris Erwin said he should be good for tomorrow afternoon’s game. We shall see.

10. The RailCats team is a very fragile one. When things are going badly they seem to shut down and give up. Granted, this season has been rough and they aren’t getting the results they want. But there is good talent here. They just need to find a way to bring it all together and finish the year strong.